Primary’s New Rules Alter Strategy

In another political era, Assemblywoman Sally Havice, alone on the ballot for the Democratic nomination in the 56th District, could have coasted comfortably through the June primary and saved her resources for the fall.

But California’s new blanket primary system, which allows voters to pick from among candidates regardless of party affiliation, has turned the first-term legislator’s reelection bid into what veteran political consultant Allan Hoffenblum calls an important “dry run” contest.

Because there is just one candidate from each party in this southeast Los Angeles County district--Democrat Havice, Republican businessman Phil Hawkins of Cerritos and Libertarian entrepreneur Bruce J. McKenzie of Downey--voters will see a June 2 ballot that will be identical to the one that will determine the winner in the Nov. 3 general election.

If Havice makes a strong showing the first time around, the Legislature’s Republican leadership will probably decide that it is not worth the time and money to try to unseat her, said Hoffenblum, a longtime GOP strategist who has compiled a detailed “Target Book” about contests for California legislative and congressional seats. If Hawkins does well, however, he will get plenty of help for November from Republican leaders eager to take back suburban seats they think they can win to realize their ultimate goal of gaining control of the Legislature.

In Los Angeles County, with its preponderance of “safe” seats, any possibility for a turnover is carefully watched by both major parties. In his book, Hoffenblum identifies six--out of 30 contests in the county for the Assembly and state Senate--that could become battlegrounds in November, attracting substantial amounts of money, time and attention from the statewide leadership in both parties.

In addition to the 56th District, dominated by conservative Democrats, two other Assembly districts fit the “dry-run” description.

One is the 43rd District, encompassing Glendale, Burbank, Silver Lake, Los Feliz and east Hollywood, where incumbent Scott Wildman, a teachers union organizer, two years ago became the first Democrat to represent the area. Although there are two Republicans on the ballot, GOP leaders are strongly backing Los Angeles Police Department Officer Peter R. Repovich over businessman Dave Wallis, and Repovich is expected to handily win the nomination.

The other is the adjacent 44th District, which includes La Canada Flintridge, Pasadena, South Pasadena, Temple City, Altadena and parts of Glendale. Like its neighbor, the onetime Republican stronghold elected a Democrat--former Pasadena City College President Jack Scott--in 1996. Scott is unopposed in the Democratic primary, and the Republicans, itching to recapture the district, are running Ken La Corte, a Pasadena businessman who once worked for GOP consulting stars Don Sippel and Roger Ailes. Three other parties also have fielded one candidate each: Shawn Waddell of Pasadena for the Green Party, businessman Ken Saurenman of Pasadena for the Libertarian Party and entrepreneur Philip Corvalan of Arcadia for the Reform Party.

“These races are almost like general elections. What happens in June in these districts will have a heavy impact in targeting decisions” by leaders of both major parties, Hoffenblum said. “The open primary [system] is creating these unique situations.”

‘New Terrain’ for Candidates

The new blanket primary system also is having an effect on campaigns in three other possible target districts, where candidates are forced to aim their appeals at the whole electorate, not just members of their own party. These districts are the adjacent coastal 53rd and 54th Assembly districts and the eastern county 60th Assembly District. All the seats were vacated by incumbents who decided to run for higher offices.

As recently as two years ago, efforts to court primary votes from the ranks of the opposition party might have backfired, with such candidates seen as turncoats.

But not now, not in this first year of the open primary.

“This is truly new terrain,” said political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe of the Claremont Graduate University’s School of Politics and Economics. “Anyone who tells you they know what is going to happen is delusional or lying.”

But there seems to be agreement that the areas where nonpartisan appeals will come into play will include such regions as the 53rd and 54th Assembly districts, where party loyalty is thin and many Democrats have a history of voting for Republicans.

Four Republicans are vying for their party’s standard in the 60th District, which includes Diamond Bar, Hacienda Heights, West Covina and parts of Whittier and Pomona. Republican incumbent Gary Miller, who won the seat in a 1995 special election, decided to challenge Rep. Jay Kim, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance law violations. Most observers give the best odds to wealthy businessman and longtime local GOP activist Michael Radlovic of Diamond Bar. Walnut Councilman Robert Pacheco also appears to be mounting a strong campaign. Other Republicans in the race are Diamond Bar Councilman Bob Huff and Norman Hsu, a member of the Hacienda-La Puente school board.

The lone Democrat is West Covina Councilman Ben Wong, while securities networking registrar Leland Thomas Faegre, also of West Covina, is running as a Libertarian.

The once-safe Republican district voted for Bill Clinton in 1996, and growing numbers of Latino voters are nudging it closer to the Democratic column.

Many of the local officeholders in these races, already accustomed to running and governing as nonpartisans, think they have an edge in the new system.

“On the council, I deal with issues as they come rather than on ideology,” said Redondo Beach Councilman Bob Pinzler, one of seven Democrats on the ballot in the notoriously party-straddling 53rd Assembly District.

“This is not a classic party district, and it is definitely an advantage to hold a nonpartisan office,” added Pinzler, whose campaign mailers also tout his efforts to halt the massive expansion of Los Angeles International Airport and his work on the campaign to clean up Santa Monica Bay.

Pinzler, however, shares the nonpartisan officeholder badge with a number of his rivals, including Torrance City Councilman George Nakano and Redondo Beach school board member Zeke Zeidler, the two men considered to be the front-runners by most political watchers.

Mark Wirth--a former aide to Rep. Jane Harman (D-Torrance), who has endorsed him--served three terms on the City Council in Torrance, the largest city in the district, which stretches down the coast from Venice to Lomita and the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Nakano, a retired school administrator, and Zeidler are well ahead of the pack in fund-raising. They have had money for professional consultants and mail campaigns, including drives for absentee ballot voters. Between January and mid-May, Nakano raised about $150,000 and Zeidler reported bringing in about $175,000. Pinzler was third with about $60,000.

Business attorney Chris O’Brien of Hermosa Beach is making his first run for elected office; he has also raised sufficient funds for early mailers and has set up a Web site.

Two other candidates also are running for the first time. They are Mar Vista educator and environmental activist Laurie Fathe, the only woman in the race, and Stewart Fournier of Manhattan Beach, who owns a courier service.

For years, the 53rd was a sure bet for Republicans. But Debra Bowen changed all that in 1992, running as a moderate Democrat against a conservative Republican in a district that is generally fiscally conservative but moderate or progressive on social issues. Bowen won reelection twice and, facing term limits, jumped into the low-key contest to succeed retiring Ralph Dills in the overlapping 28th Senate District. Facing only token opposition on the Democratic ballot from retiree James J. Isaac of Redondo Beach, Bowen is expected to handily win the safe Democratic seat in November. The Republican candidate is educator and businesswoman Asha Knott, and teacher Neal Donner is running as a Libertarian.

The Republicans’ plans to recapture the Assembly district ran into a snag when their expected standard-bearer got confused about the signature-gathering requirements and was disqualified. The anticipated candidacy of El Camino College trustee Bill Beverly, son of former longtime legislator Bob Beverly, had scared all but one other Republican out of the race. When Bill Beverly failed to qualify for the ballot, that left think-tank policy analyst Bill Eggers of Manhattan Beach alone in the GOP field.

Democrats rejoiced, but now are acknowledging that they may have celebrated too soon.

Republican Party leaders have rallied around Eggers, an articulate author and former director of government reform at the Reason Public Policy Institute in Los Angeles. A strong fiscal conservative and advocate for turning traditional government services over to private contractors, Eggers also is endorsed by several taxpayer group leaders.

“I think the Republicans are getting pretty excited about Eggers, a lot more than they were at first,” noted one Democratic contender, who hastened to add that he nonetheless thinks Eggers may come across as too conservative to carry the day in November.

Striving for Nonpartisan Appeal

In the neighboring 54th Assembly District, reaching from blue-collar Hawaiian Gardens and half of Long Beach through San Pedro and much of the affluent Palos Verdes Peninsula, all the action is on the Republican side. And the candidates are making no bones about their nonpartisan pitches.

Long Beach city prosecutor Julie Alban is sending mail to Democrats. Her literature frequently makes no mention of her GOP affiliation.

Rancho Palos Verdes City Councilwoman Marilyn Lyon’s Republican credentials are impeccable. Over the years she’s been a sort of a do-everything Republican volunteer, serving as a delegate to the 1996 national convention and the GOP Central Committee and holding offices in a variety of organizations, such as California Republican Women Federated. She also is going after Democrats.

A third Republican in the race, Long Beach City Councilman Doug Drummond, is also going with a nonpartisan appeal. Campaign literature shows him with both Democrats and Republicans and makes scant references to his Republican affiliation. And why not? A retired police commander, he has served two terms on the City Council, where members are not identified by party affiliation. Also running as a Republican is Alva Romero Personius, a homemaker from Rolling Hills Estates.

Tom Shortridge, one of Lyon’s campaign advisors, predicted that the bulk of votes going to Republican candidates in the primary will be from Republicans. But he thinks crossover votes could make a difference in close elections, hence the appeal to Democrats.

The GOP winner will probably face Long Beach City Councilman Alan Lowenthal, one of two Democrats on the ballot, in November. The other Democrat is history teacher Sandor Jay Sonnen of Rolling Hills Estates. Business owner George P. (Phil) Drake is running as an American Independent Party member, and Al Carlan, a Rancho Palos Verdes educator and engineer, is on the ballot as a Libertarian.

The two hotly contested open state Senate seats in the county will be decided in the primary. Both the 20th District, in the east San Fernando Valley, and the 26th District, in the Crenshaw-Culver City area, are safe Democratic seats whose incumbents are retiring because of term limits.

The 20th District battle has become an increasingly bitter contest between former Assemblyman Richard Katz and Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon. Katz has the backing of the state Democratic Party, but the state’s increasingly influential Latino caucus has rallied around Alarcon.

In the 26th District, home to many of the region’s affluent black professionals, Assemblyman Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles) is competing against former Assemblywoman Marguerite Archie-Hudson (D-Los Angeles). Murray, son of former Assemblyman Willard Murray, has been endorsed by powerful Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles). The other Democrat on the ballot is crisis intervention counselor and perennial candidate Addie Miller. Republican computer consultant Mac Lane Key and Libertarian Bob Weber, a motion picture technologist, also are on the ballot.

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